.jpg "The ADVANCED Preflop 3-Bet Squeeze Technique")
This article was written by blackrain79.com contributor Fran Ferlan.
The squeeze play is a staple in every decent poker player’s arsenal. It’s an effective preflop weapon that will allow you to win “more than your fair share” at the felt.
While the preflop squeeze is an advanced poker concept, it’s not overly complicated, either.
However, it does require at least some familiarity with the basic poker lingo.
Throughout the article, there will be a number of example hands to better illustrate the concepts.
With that in mind, let’s get right into it!
1. What is a 3-Bet Squeeze?
Before getting into the example hands, let’s start with the basic definition of a squeeze.
A 3-bet squeeze preflop is a re-raise against another player’s open-raise when there are one or more callers of the open-raise.
For example, a player open-raises, another player calls, then you make a 3-bet.
If there is only an open-raiser before you and no callers, your 3-bet would not be considered a squeeze.
If there is only an open-raiser before you and no callers, your 3-bet would not be considered a squeeze.
It’s called a squeeze play because:
a) you are trying to “squeeze out” the dead money preflop and
b) the other players involved in a pot are “squeezed” between other players, which puts them at an awkward position.
You can either squeeze as a value bet, or as a bluff.
When you are value betting, you are hoping to get called by weaker hands.
When you are 3-bet bluffing, you are trying to get stronger hands than yours to fold.
We’ll break down the difference in the example hands below.
But before getting into the examples, let’s examine why a 3-bet squeeze is such a powerful technique to have in your poker arsenal.
A squeeze is very effective because it attacks loose and weak ranges, both from the open-raiser and the preflop caller(s).
When faced with a squeeze, the open-raiser faces a tough decision. Not only do they have to worry about the 3-bet, but they also need to consider the action of the preflop caller.
In other words, they are not the ones closing the action, because there’s another player left to act after them.
The preflop caller is also in a tough spot, because their range is capped when they make a flat call.
A capped range is the one that has an upper limit of the theoretical hand strength.
An uncapped range, on the other hand, has no upper limit of the theoretical hand strength, and can contain all the strong starting hands like pocket Aces, pocket Kings, Ace-King, and so on.
As a general rule, bluffing is more effective when done against capped ranges, because these ranges cannot contain a lot of nuts combinations.
By the way, check out my recent video on how to bluff when you're completely card dead!
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2. Attack Weak and Loose Ranges With a 3-Bet Squeeze
As a general rule, the looser your opponents' ranges, the more likely it is that your 3-bet bluff will be effective.
Most hands in your opponent’s range won’t be able to stand the pressure of a 3-bet, so you will be able to generate a lot of folds with a well-timed 3-bet squeeze.
This is especially the case against the preflop caller’s range, since their range is capped.
The open-raiser’s range, on the other hand, is uncapped, meaning they can theoretically have a lot of strong combinations in their range.
That’s why it’s best to attack the open-raiser’s range when it’s loose and likely to contain a lot of marginal holdings.
All things being equal, it’s better to 3-bet against the players who open-raise in the late positions (like the cutoff and the button).
Conversely, you should be more careful when attacking the open-raise from the early table positions.
The early position open-raising ranges are a lot stronger than late position open-raising ranges.
That’s because good players tend to play more hands in late positions than in early positions.
Even the recreational players who aren’t particularly positionally aware will exercise more caution when they are the first players to enter the pot.
The more players left to act after you, the stronger cards you need to be able to play them profitably.
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3. Don’t 3-Bet Squeeze With Unplayable Hands
The goal of a bluff squeeze is to get your opponents to fold preflop and take down the pot outright.
This means your hand strength is often irrelevant when 3-bet squeezing. What matters more is your opponent’s ranges and their folding frequencies.
In other words, if your fold equity is high enough, you can 3-bet bluff profitably with a lot of hands.
Fold equity simply refers to the percentage chance of your opponents folding to your bets. The more often they fold, the higher your fold equity.
Still, if you decide to squeeze as a bluff, you should do so with hands that have some sort of playability post flop in case your squeeze gets called.
If you don’t take down the pot preflop, you can still fire a c-bet on most flops and try to take down the pot.
That’s because you will get to the flop as the preflop aggressor, meaning you will have the initiative and the range advantage.
The range advantage means that the preflop aggressor has more strong hands in their range than the preflop caller.
In other words, the preflop aggressor’s range is uncapped, whereas the preflop caller’s range is capped.
This gives the preflop aggressor the initiative in the hand, i.e. the opportunity to continue with the aggression post flop.
With that in mind, you should still choose to play hands that can connect with the board in some meaningful way.
This simply gives you more options to win the pot: you can either push everyone out with a well-timed bluff, or make the best hand combination at showdown.
One of the best hands to 3-bet squeeze with preflop are Suited Aces.
Suited Aces are great 3-bet bluffing candidates for a few reasons:
A) Suited Aces have great playability post flop
They have a great nuts potential with the ability to make nuts flushes. Even if you don’t make a flush, you can still make a top pair hand with a pair of Aces.
Small suited Aces (A5s through A2s) have the additional ability to make straights, which further increases their nuts potential.
B) Suited Aces have blocker power
A blocker is a card in your hand that reduces the number of strong hands from your opponent’s range.
For example, if you have an Ace in your hand, it’s less likely for your opponent to have strong combinations like pocket Aces, Ace-King, Ace-Queen and so on.
This means they are more likely to fold to your 3-bet, meaning you are getting better fold equity.
Let’s take a look at how blockers work in practice.
In no-limit hold’em, there are 6 combos of pocket pairs, and 16 combos of unpaired hands.
Just to be clear, A♥A♠ and A♠A♥ are the same combo, for example.
Now, let’s say you are dealt a hand like A♥3♥. You want to know how your hand impacts your opponent’s range.
Since you have one Ace in your hand, this reduces the number of pocket Aces combos from 6 to only 3.
It also reduces the number of Ace-King combos from 16 to 12.
Your opponent can still theoretically have pocket Aces and Ace-King in their range, of course, but it’s less likely due to the blocker in your hand.
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4. Consider the Outcome of a 3-Bet Squeeze
When you make a 3-bet squeeze, there are three possible outcomes you will face.
Before you decide to make a squeeze, you should consider which of the four outcomes you expect, so you can use appropriate bet sizing.
If you 3-bet squeeze, you can:
a) get both the preflop raiser and the preflop caller to fold
b) get called by both the preflop raiser and the preflop caller
c) get called by one player and get the other player to fold.
Note that there are a few possible variations in the third case, since you can get called either by the open-raiser or the preflop caller.
Also, if there are multiple preflop callers, you can get called by one but not the other etc.
Let’s consider each of the scenarios to figure out the best way to use the 3-bet squeeze profitably.
5. 3-bet Squeeze For Value When You Expect to Get Called
The goal of bluffing in poker is to get stronger hands than yours to fold. If your opponents are unlikely to fold in certain spots, you can’t really bluff them profitably.
That’s why you’re usually better off avoiding bluffing recreational players, since they love to call a lot.
Squeezing as a bluff is no different, so you should avoid light 3-betting if your opponents aren’t likely to fold.
By the way, light 3-betting simply means 3-betting as a bluff, as opposed to 3-betting for value.
When you have very little fold equity (i.e. you expect to get called quite often), you should keep your 3-betting range value-heavy, especially against recreational players.
Squeezing for value is a great way to build up the pot preflop, and it translates to much easier post flop play as well.
When you build a big pot preflop, it’s easier to ship the rest of your stack in the middle post flop.
This is especially important when you are playing out of position.
You can offset your positional disadvantage by building up a big pot with your strong value hands, then simply continue applying the aggression post flop.
3-Bet Squeeze Example Hand #1
Cash Game, Effective Stack Size: 100 BB
You are dealt Q♦Q♠ in the BB (big blind).
A tight and aggressive player open-raises to 3x from the CO (cutoff). A loose and passive player calls from the BU (button).
You: ???
You should 3-bet squeeze to 12 BB.
In this spot, you have a clear value bet, because you can get called by a number of weaker hands from both players.
If you get called by both players, you will be automatically committed to the pot post flop, meaning you can comfortably ship the rest of your stack in the middle.
If you flop an overpair, your hand will be comfortably ahead of your opponent’s range.
Even if and Ace or a King comes on the flop, you can still make a c-bet, because you can credibly represent a number of strong Ax or Kx hands.
The reason to go for a bigger bet sizing is the fact that you are playing out of position, so you want to charge your opponent a premium if they want to have positional advantage over you.
Also, the preflop caller is a recreational player, meaning they will likely call you with a number of worse hands.
You can use that to your advantage and bet exploitatively, meaning you bet big with your strong value hands.
This means you can bump up your 3-bet size to 13 BB or even 14 BB.
Now that we’ve covered squeezing for value, let’s examine the bluff squeeze.
6. Use a Bluff Squeeze to Take Down the Pot Preflop
As mentioned, you can only bluff profitably if you can get your opponents to fold often enough.
If not, you’re better off sticking with betting purely for value.
But often enough, you will find a lot of spots where you can bluff profitably if you know what to look for.
To pull off a successful bluff squeeze, you should look for:
a) players with weak and loose ranges
b) players who fold too often to 3-bets.
These two factors often go hand in hand, but not always.
For example, recreational players might have very loose ranges, but will often call 3-bets liberally nonetheless.
These players are ideal candidates for (thin) value betting, not bluffing.
But more often than not, weak and loose ranges can’t really stand the pressure of 3-bets, meaning you can often generate a lot of folds with a well-timed 3-bet bluff.
This means you should be careful when squeezing against open-raises from the early position.
Open-raises from early positions usually have a lot tighter and stronger ranges than open-raises from the late positions.
3-Bet Squeeze Example Hand #2
You are dealt K♦2♦ in the BB (big blind). A tight and aggressive player open-raises to 2.5 BB from the BU (button). Another player calls from the SB (small blind).
You: ???
You should light 3-bet to 10 BB.
In this spot, you obviously can't bet for value, as you're unlikely to get called by a lot of weaker hands.
Still, you can try to take down the pot outright preflop, since you are attacking what appear to be quite weak and loose ranges.
Also, your hand has blocker power, as it blocks certaing strong combinations in your opponent's range (like pocket Kings, Ace-King, King-Queen and so on).
Your hand also has some playability post flop, with the ability to make strong flushes.
So even if your bluff gets called, you'll still be able to pick up the pot post flop some of the time.
It's worth mentioning, however, that you shouldn't attempt to many 3-bet bluffs if you are facing recreational players, as they are less likely to fold to your bluffing attempts.
Again, against recreational players, it's better to keep your ranges value heavy and use exploitative bet sizing.
7. Use a 3-Bet Squeeze to Isolate Recreational Players
Finally, the third possible outcome of a squeeze is to get called by only one player, be it the preflop open-raiser or the preflop caller.
Sometimes, there will be situations where your hand can get called by weaker hands from one player, but not the other.
For example:
You can get called by weaker hands from the preflop caller, but not from the preflop open-raiser.
This is often the case if the preflop caller is a recreational player who is likely calling with quite a wide range preflop.
Often with really weak stuff like A♦️7♣️ or J♥️9♠️
In spots like this, you can make a 3-bet squeeze to isolate the preflop caller, and play a heads-up pot against them post flop.
A heads up pot is a pot with only two players involved, as opposed to a multiway pot which has more than two players involved.
It’s important to recognize that your hole cards can be used to bet for value against certain opponents, but not the others.
When bettting for value, always ask yourself which weaker hands are likely to give you action.
If the answer is not many, you can’t really value bet effectively.
But if there are a lot of stronger hands that are likely to fold to your bet, you can bet as a bluff instead.
So how does this relate to 3-bet squeezing?
Often enough, you will encounter situations where your hand can be bet for value against only one player.
This will usually be the preflop caller, since their range is capped.
A capped range means that there’s an upper limit of strong hands they can potentially hold.
For example, if a player flat calls preflop, this means they probably don’t have premium hands like pocket Aces, pocket Kings, Ace-King and so on.
That’s because they would have most likely 3-bet those hands instead of flat calling.
That’s because they would have most likely 3-bet those hands instead of flat calling.
Conversely, an open-raiser’s range is uncapped, meaning they can have a number of strong combinations in their range.
Granted, some players may choose to slowplay their hands to conceal their hand strength, but that’s a different story.
So a 3-bet squeeze is great for attacking the capped ranges preflop. What about the open-raiser’s range?
As mentioned, you should be more careful when attacking open-raises from early positions, since these ranges will usually be stronger on average.
But if a player open-raises from late position, their range is likely to be weaker and looser, meaning they are more likely to fold to a 3-bet.
3-Bet Squeeze Example Hand #3
You are dealt A♠7♠ in the BB (big blind).
A tight and aggressive player open-raises to 2.5 BB from the BU (button). A loose and passive player calls from the SB (small blind).
You: ???
You should 3-bet squeeze to 10 BB.
In this spot, you can’t really bet for value against the open-raiser, because you will often struggle to get called by weaker hands. This means your 3-bet squeeze would constitute a bluff instead.
However, there’s a weak player in the small blind that you wouldn’t mind playing against post flop, especially since you will play the hand in position.
Against this particular player, you are likely to get called by a lot of weaker hands, so your hand is closer to a value bet.
Recreational players are likely to play a lot of mediocre to weak hands you’re comfortably ahead of.
Think hands like weaker Ax hands, broadway hands, a lot of suited junk and so on.
By the way, check out my latest video for the 9 advanced poker tips all serious poker players need to know.
The ADVANCED Preflop “3-bet Squeeze” Poker Technique - Summary
While mastering the 3-bet squeeze takes some practice, you don’t have to learn a lot of advanced poker strategy to add it to your arsenal.
All you need to do is remember a few key concepts outlined below.
To sum up, here’s what you need to know about the squeeze play.
1. Attack loose and weak ranges
If you are squeezing as a bluff, you should avoid 3-betting against open-raises from the early positions, because they are likely to contain a lot more strong combinations.
Instead, focus on attacking looser ranges, like open-raises from the late positions.
2. Don’t squeeze with unplayable hands
Even though the goal of a bluff squeeze is to win the pot outright preflop, you should still choose to do it with hands that have some sort of playability post flop.
No matter how sound your bluffing attempt is, sometimes it’s not going to go through, and you’ll be forced to play some poker post flop. So it’s better to do it with hands that can flop something meaningful.
3. Consider the outcome of the squeeze
When you squeeze, there are three possible outcomes you can get: you can either get both players to call, both players to fold, or get called by only one player.
Consider which outcome you are hoping to achieve, then choose an appropriate bet size to do so.
4. Squeeze to build up the pot with your strong value hands
If your opponents aren’t likely to fold to your bluffs, you should keep your 3-bet range value-heavy. This means 3-betting only strong hands preflop.
Squeezing for value is a great way to build up the pot preflop, which translates to easier post flop play as well.
5. Bluff squeeze against timid players
The ideal candidates to 3-bet light against are players who fold to 3-bets too often. Fortunately, there’s plenty of players like these, especially at the lower stakes.
6. Squeeze to isolate the recreational player
Often enough, you won’t be able to bet for value against both the preflop raiser and the preflop caller.
In spots like these, you can use the 3-bet squeeze to isolate the preflop caller, especially if they’re likely a recreational player.
This way, you can play a heads-up pot against them, and take advantage of their post flop mistakes.
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This article was written by Fran Ferlan
Poker player, writer and coach
Specializing in live and online cash games
For coaching enquiries, contact Fran at email@franferlan.com
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